Researchers, Deyong Wu and Mingce Long, have developed a new cotton fabric that is capable of de-odorizing by cleaning bacteria and stains by itself on its exposure to normal sunlight.

The researchers have reported their novel cotton fabric in the Applied Materials & Interfaces, a journal of the American Chemical Society. According to them, they have coated their fabric with a compound made of titanium dioxide, a white material utilized widely in a broad array of products, ranging from sunscreen lotions to foods to white paint.

Titanium dioxide material is capable of breaking down dirt and destroying microbes during its exposure to some kinds of light. For this capability, the material is already being utilized in several products, including odorless socks, bathroom and kitchen tiles, self-cleaning windows and much more.

The researchers stated that earlier self-cleaning cotton fabrics were capable of performing thorough self-cleaning only during their exposure to ultraviolet rays. Hence, they have decided to synthesize a novel cotton fabric that can perform self-cleaning on its exposure to normal sunlight.

According to the report in the Applied Materials & Interfaces journal, the researchers coated the cotton fabric with nanoparticles made of a compound of nitrogen and titanium dioxide. They demonstrated the removal of an orange dye stain by the nanomaterial-coated fabric during its exposure to normal sunlight. The discoloration process was accelerated by further dispensing nanoparticles containing iodine and silver.

The coating on the fabric remains unaffected even after several washing and drying. The researchers accept funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Donghua University.